Growing up / risk management

[tasadam]

In light of this day of over-cautionary cotton wool kit gloves and lawsuits, I thought I would share this, from an email I just received...
So much of this I can relate to (though growing up in Queensland it was not frogs, it was cane toads).

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 70's !

First, we survived being born to mothers who lived in houses made of asbestos....

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in them, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY , no video/dvd films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time...

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL !

And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

[Nuts]

True, but it is kinda ironic though that these are some of the very people encouraging kids to not 'be like us'..

[Ent]

True, but it is kinda ironic though that these are some of the very people encouraging kids to not 'be like us'..

Nuts that is the best reply I have seen to that email.

[sthughes]

Hmm since I last saw that email doing the rounds a bit has been added to the start, for the worse. While for the most part I agree with it wholeheartedly, but surely lead based paint and asbestos aren't things to lament the passing of? And while I get a little annoyed by the over regulation of society, maybe safe cars, bicycle helmets and childproof medicine bottles aren't all that bad are they? After all they don't actually stop kids doing anything, except perhaps dying in car crashes, getting brain injuries on their bikes and inquisitive toddlers accidentally overdosing!
But yeah in many ways it's sad the "good ol days" are gone, what's worse is that they were already half way gone when I was growing up

[tasadam]

Yes, there is the serious side of a lot of those points. But it was interesting to reflect on them in a humorous way.
There was another on the list, which I didn't agree with at all, so I excluded it from my post.

[Ent]

Hmm since I last saw that email doing the rounds a bit has been added to the start, for the worse. While for the most part I agree with it wholeheartedly, but surely lead based paint and asbestos aren't things to lament the passing of? And while I get a little annoyed by the over regulation of society, maybe safe cars, bicycle helmets and childproof medicine bottles aren't all that bad are they? After all they don't actually stop kids doing anything, except perhaps dying in car crashes, getting brain injuries on their bikes and inquisitive toddlers accidentally overdosing!
But yeah in many ways it's sad the "good ol days" are gone, what's worse is that they were already half way gone when I was growing up

Good points sthuges. I for years never wore a bicycle helmet and grumbled and bickered when the law came in but reluctantly brought one. Even as late as 2005 I would have written of the liberating effect of not having to wear one when cycling in Europe. Then there was the small matter of a flat tyre at over sixty kilometres per hour down a step hill. I recovered eventually but my helmet gave up its place on this planet. Without it life would either not be here or be much different and yes without a helmet I would have been at the same speed so not a case of a safety aid having me push the boundaries.

As nearly always the answer lies between the two extremes.

Cheers Brett

[Nuts]

Yer, there are some obvious advancements, I was more thinking of the 'not so bad' things that were thrown out with the bathwater..
Funny email though...